This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art which may be related to various aspects of the present invention which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Over the past few years, an increasing number of computer applications have been written or designed to provide continuous, real time flow of information across a computer network. Streaming media, such as audio or video, is one example. Streaming media servers must be able to provide access to a continuous flow of a large amount of information. For this reason, multiple disk drive systems, such as Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives (“RAID”), are typically used to store data in systems that provide access to large amounts of data. Any system that could increase the data transfer rate, also referred to as the “bandwidth”, of the multiple disk drive system would advantageously improve the efficiency of the computer systems that provide continuous data flow.